Biographical/historical information

Nina Wiener is an American dancer and choreographer. She began dancing with Twyla Tharp in 1973, leaving the company in 1976 to start her own group, Nina Wiener and Dancers. The company was selected to participate in the New Dance USA festival in 1981, and performed at Jacobs Pillow, the London Dance Umbrella and the Utrecht Modern Dance and Movement Festival in 1984.

In 1981 she was the only modern choreographer selected by Mikhail Baryshnikov to participate in American Ballet Theatre's workshop "Emerging Artists Laboratory," where she created a work specifically for their training company.

Wiener's company also produced pieces for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's "Next Wave" festival in 1985, where she premiered In Closed Time, a three-act piece with separate scores for each act and a set of ten massive architectural elements designed by the firm Arquitectonica. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Wiener spent part of each year serving as artistic adviser to the Dutch company Dance Reflex, for which she created several works and set up a training program.

Scope and arrangement

The Nina Wiener papers contain design materials, scores, photographs and clippings documenting Wiener's works Wind Devil (1983), Fierce Attachments (1987), In Closed Time (1985), Integers (1980), and Transatlantic Light (1987). The Wind Devil files hold photographs and clippings from a 1985 Dutch production of the piece. Fierce Attachments material consists of scores and set and stage designs, as well as an audio tape by composer Lucia Hwong. The Transatlantic Light file holds original costume sketches and a photograph of the piece's composer, Sergio Cervetti. The In Closed Time file holds a stage concept sketch. The Integers material consists of a spoken-word score and a photograph of its composer, James Sherry.